BY ROSE ADAMS
Brooklyn Democratic Party
leaders voted to hold fewer
meetings and restrict memberdriven
resolutions on Jan. 20
— two changes that reformers
claim will reduce the body’s
transparency.
“They’re just obvious tools
to disengage people,” said Jessica
Thurston, the Vice President
of Political Affairs at the
reform-minded New Kings
Democrats. “It consolidates
power and reduces accountability.”
At a closed-door meeting,
the Executive Committee of
the Kings County Democratic
Party — which is made up of 46
district leaders, one male and
one female from each of the
borough’s assembly districts
— voted to enact the two rule
changes, causing an uproar
among their fellow Democrats,
according to one district leader
who spoke on the condition of
anonymity.
“It really sparked a very
fi erce, contentious conversation,”
the person said.
The amendments come amid
a changing of the guard, as outgoing
COURIER L 34 IFE, JAN. 31-FEB. 6, 2020
party boss Frank Seddio
announced that he would
be stepping down earlier this
month, and backed Assemblywoman
Rodneyse Bichotte (DFlatbush)
as his successor.
Just before her fellow district
leaders offi cially made
her the new chairwoman of the
party, however, they passed
the two controversial amendments.
The fi rst resolution reduced
the number of times that the
county committee convenes,
from twice yearly to just once.
The second change limits
the scope of member-introduced
resolutions — proposals
introduced by average Brooklyn
Democrats to make changes
within the party establishment
— so that they can’t address
“any aspect of the internal governance”
within the party.
Both reforms negatively
affect citizen participation in
party governance by curtailing
the ways in which average
citizens can make their voices
heard, according to one district
leader, who expressed optimism
that the changes could
be undone.
“Folks like myself, and other
reform coalitions, fought really
hard to create additional avenues
and additional meetings
for the conduct of party business,”
said Doug Schneider,
whose district includes Park
Slope and Windsor Terrace. “It
remains my hope that this is
not a permanent change.”
Party leaders told attendees
that reducing meetings was
a necessary step for the cashstrapped
party, which had just
$40,327 in its account as of Jan.
15, and is $226,000 in debt, fi lings
show. Executives claimed
the party couldn’t even spare
the money for postage to announce
the meetings by mail
— let alone front the cost of the
events’ venue.
Seddio, who declined to
comment for this story, has
claimed in the past that the
low fi nances resulted from the
party declining donations from
the real estate industry.
The Brooklyn Democratic Party passed new rules unpopular with reformminded
members. Photo by Michael Appleton / Mayor’s Offi ce
But even if cost restraints
limited the number of meetings,
other critics argue that
a lack of funds doesn’t explain
the committee’s vote to restrict
the power of resolutions — a
change that limits members’
ability to implement changes to
the party, Thurston claimed.
“It’s the primary tool that
allowed members to participate
and be engaged,” said
Thurston.
Resolutions have always
been non-binding “statements
of aspiration,” Schneider explained,
but many held power.
One member-driven resolution
that passed at the September
meeting called for the
creation of a fi nance committee
to audit the party’s spending
and low funds, which was
set to present their fi ndings at
the following meeting scheduled
for February — but that
gathering is now canceled, and
there’s no evidence that such a
committee was even created,
the reformers claim.
Schneider — who clarifi ed
that he thinks “the new chairwoman
is amazing” — said
that grassroots organizers now
must pressure their district
leaders to seek change on their
behalf, and worried that the
two amendments marked an
unfortunately undemocratic
start to Bichotte’s tenure atop
the Democratic party.
“The biggest thing for me is
that these amendments were
passed in the minutes before
we elected a new chairperson,”
he said.
Bichotte did not return several
requests for comment.
DEMS DA RULES
Reformers: Brooklyn Dems’ changes will reduce transparency
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